After carrying out a 3 month public consultation which received over 1000 responses, Portsmouth Council is to bring in additional licensing of smaller private rented sector HMO (houses in multiple occupation) properties with the scheme set to start on 1st September 2023.

The manner in which increasing numbers of local authorities are rolling out additional licensing schemes covering smaller HMO (Houses in Multiple Occupation) properties in the private rented sector has been questioned by Theresa Wallace, Chair of the Lettings Industry Council, in an article in the Daily Telegraph [paywall].

Lambeth Council officers inspected a private rented sector house in the Streatham area of the borough and found that between July 2019 and January 2020 it had been occupied, as an illegal bedsit, by more than 5 tenants. The total amount of rent per month that the landlord received was £4,240.

Michael Gove MP has announced that 3 councils have received a share of £14 million to roll out projects aimed at finding new approaches to improving housing standards in the private rented sector (PRS) and to target better housing enforcement action.

The private rented sector landlord had used Facebook to publicise his tenant's rent arrears to her friends and family. He also included personal details such as her address and place of employment in the post - which he subsequently deleted. However the tenant complained to the council's Housing Enforcement team.

Housing standards, and the capacity of local authorities to enforce them, are rightly, but for all the wrong reasons, in the headlines at the moment. With this in mind, it’s instructive to look at what local authorities can achieve, in the private rented sector, via prosecutions and their attendant penalties. So, here are the top 5 housing enforcement cases of 2022.

Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), has written to the leaders and chief executives of all local authorities in England with a "Direction" under section 3(3) of the Housing Act 2004.

Boston Council's Environment and Performance Committee is to consider a proposal to bring in PRS selective licensing at a meeting scheduled for tomorrow (22nd November 2022). The licensing proposal is put forward via a review report from the council's Safer Communities team.

The London borough of Merton's council has opened a public consultation on plans to bring in private rented sector property licensing across 7 its wards. Although the council already requires, under mandatory HMO licensing rules, it is now proposing to start using selective licensing covering single household rented properties, to bring in additional licensing to cover smaller HMO properties and also to require any conversion of a property into an HMO, of whatever size, to first be granted planning permission from the council

The private rented sector in the London borough of Wandsworth is now estimated to constitute up to a third of all housing stock in the area with the council saying that the "standards of delivery within the private rented sector vary widely" and that whilst most landlords are responsible "there exists a rogue landlord element that deliver substandard ... and sometimes dangerous dwellings".

Following on from a joint letter to the Prime Minister from the leaders of Kent and Hampshire county councils warning that both councils would be likely to be considering section 114 notices "within the next year or so", the Local Government Association (LGA) has also issued a dire warning about the additional cost pressures impacting on local authority service provision.

A Private Members' Bill, sponsored by Bob Blackman MP, to regulate private rented sector provision of supported housing to vulnerable tenants is to have its second reading in the House of Commons this week (18th November).

Haringey Council's new large selective licensing scheme will go live on 17th November meaning that, after that date, any private rented sector landlord operating rental properties in the borough without having applied for or been granted a licence (per property) to so operate will be operating illegally.

Two just published documents could, perhaps, point to a way that local authorities could better persuade private rented sector (PRS) landlords that there are benefits to selective licensing schemes.

The public consultation opened on November 1st and closes on 31st January with the aim "to ensure that all rented properties are safe and well managed [and] ...... to better understand how and where [the council] can make a difference".

Two weeks after he moved in to the rental property in Cambridge the tenant had created a "fake estate agent" in order to list the property for sale on-line and had fitted the property out with rented show home furniture.

Propertymark has published its response to the public consultation on the new decent homes standard (DHS) for the private rented sector and calls for a focus on prevention via provision to landlords of advice/information and support rather than prosecution when it comes to enforcement of the standard.

In September we reported that the Government was to make it a legal obligation for landlords using "bills included" tenancies to pass on the cost of living crisis £400 energy bills rebate to their tenants. Currently, over half a million private rented sector tenants (equivalent to 13% of PRS tenants) are on such tenancies.

The Judge at Thames Magistrates Court said the private rented sector landlord's offending "undermines the entire system of planning control" when ordering him to pay a £251,582 confiscation order, Waltham Forest Council's legal costs of £29,725 and a fine of £12,000 (reduced from £16,000 in recognition of the landlord's pleading guilty).

The “Outsourcing” behemoth Serco has an interesting “calling all landlords” message on its webpage. The company states that it is looking for “landlords, investors and agents” with rental properties available (in the North West, Midlands and the East of England) in all category types - HMO, single family, care homes, residential and former student accommodation.

The LGA has inputted to current parliamentary debates on the Government's Rental Reform White Paper by submitting its views in a series of key messages.

Brent Council in London has opened a public consultation on plans to designate a new, phased, selective licensing scheme covering the private rented sector across 21 wards in the borough.

On 1st June 2022 we reported on a housing standards prosecution taken by City of Wolverhampton Council against a landlord who had put his tenants "at serious risk" to their health and safety due to numerous breaches of housing management regulations. On that occasion the landlord had to pay £4,808 in fines, costs and surcharges.

Proposed Company Limited bought the maisonette flats in 1993 but had refused to carry out repairs that had been reported to them. Officers from Barking & Dagenham council's private sector housing team made several visits to the flats and ordered the freehold landlord to carry out repairs within a set period but were ignored.